Black King
by EagleTsubasa
Summary: Humans have been going missing and Hollow appearances have been steadily increasing. With the Hollows and the slowly-reappearing humans acting oddly, Ichigo, with his knowledge of humans, is called in by the baffled Shinigami. However, Ichigo soon finds himself facing something that couldn't possibly exist. Will they find a way to defeat the Black King and his growing army?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Disappearance

_Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, Slender Man/Slender or any Shakespeare works._

_BLEACH_

Darkness…

Fear…

Despair…

Death…

It was hard to believe that one being – one entity – could cause these four things upon its' mere appearance in front of those who it chose to… follow… Yet, a single being was what it was. The beginning of it all.

Being… Entity… Could those words even describe such a being? Wasn't it so much more than that? That was what those who knelt before the… being, for lack of a better word, believed. Then again, when faced with such power, it was only natural for one to think of such a thing.

The being sat atop a crumbling stone throne at the top of a tall, cracked staircase, its' figure shrouded in shadow despite the torches that lined the cave-like chamber, its' very presence practically suffocating the three inferior beings who knelt before it, awaiting their orders, willing them to come sooner rather than later, all of them wanting to escape the being as soon as possible.

"… Find more… I must… have more…" the being practically whispered, its' masculine voice sounding warped and metallic as it did so.

"… Y-yes, my King… A-as you command…" a bipedal crimson lobster-like creature stuttered, his high-pitched voice cracking slightly in fear, his human-sized body visibly quivering. A blank mask with a frowning design on it covered its' face and its' arms ended in massive round claws that looked to be capable of crushing at least a human skull. Large, razor sharp ridges covered its' arms and its' back, starting from its' head and ending at its' lobster-finned tail.

Taking the ensuing silence as their cue to leave, the three creatures scrambled out of the room, eager to escape the being on top of the throne. Walking through a large door and ascending a long flight of torch-lit stairs, they eventually burst out into the cool air that accompanied the perpetual night of Hueco Mundo, kicking up sand as they fled the cave that they had just exited from.

Panting, a dark brown, bipedal scorpion-like creature wearing a blank mask with a leering grin on it spoke up. "How long do we have to listen to that… that thing?!" it exclaimed, its' mask not reflecting its' true emotions.

A brown dog-like creature with an eared mask immediately hushed it. "Shh! Don't let him hear you say that, Sharp Sting! He'll turn us into one of those… mindless things!"

"We have no choice, Sharp Sting!" the lobster hissed.

"What do you expect me to do, Crusher Claw?!" Sharp Sting retorted. He turned to the dog. "Weren't you the one who attempted to encourage us to rebel when he first appeared, Swift Paw?! Why are you backing out now?!"

"You saw what he can do! We can't risk it!" Swift Paw snapped.

"Shh!" Crusher Claw hushed them as a green mantis-like creature slowly ambled past, a strange symbol etched into the forehead of its' mask that none of the creatures bothered to get a good look at. Once it was gone, he turned to the others. "They're all on his side… They've been… converted… If they hear us talking like this, we'll just become his mindless slaves like them…!"

"Yeah. They're mindless. They're too stupid to know whether we're on his side or not!" Sharp Sting argued, his scorpion tail twitching in annoyance.

"Then, how does he always know when we're not on his side?" Swift Paw reasoned.

Suddenly, Sharp Sting drove his stinger into the ground in annoyance, the force of the impact kicking up a cloud of dust. "I don't care…" he grunted. "… I'm getting out of here… Whose with me…?"

The other creatures started, jumping back in horror. Swift Paw shook his head madly, his jowls flopping from side to side as he did so. "T-t-that's insane!" he stammered.

"No! It's just too dangerous! We'll keep bringing them to him!" Crusher Claw retorted. "It'll keep us safe!"

"I don't care! I'm going anyway! I can't deal with living in fear like this anymore!" Sharp Sting snapped, finally making up his mind. He ran towards a sand dune, making a break for freedom. Sensing neither of his comrades following him, he didn't stop or turn back, a cloud of sand kicking up behind him as he ran. Reaching the top of the sand dune, he paused, something in the distance catching his eye.

Scanning the desert, he saw that the mantis-like creature had stopped. Sharp Sting frowned behind his mask. "What is that Hollow doing…?" he muttered as he watched the creature – a Hollow. It was almost as if it was… staring at him…

He blinked and started as another figure appeared in the desert. Straining a little, although he was unable to make out the second dark figure's appearance in the dark perpetual night of Hueco Mundo, he watched the figures stare at him, both Hollows never moving an inch. An uneasy feeling suddenly came over him. He blinked again and the other Hollow was gone.

"Was that a Sonído…? What is one of his Arrancar doing out here…?" the scorpion Hollow muttered to himself. "Oh, well… None of my concern…" He paused. "… I have to get moving…"

The Hollow slowly and carefully began to make his way down the sand dune, being careful not to trip and injure himself. He would need all of his stamina if he was to keep moving. He just wished that this uneasy feeling that had suddenly swamped him would go away. He didn't have time for that.

He walked for what seemed like hours to him, the uneasiness slowly growing with every step that he took. Forcing down the new feeling of sickness, he looked back for what felt like the hundredth time to him.

"There's nothing wrong… Nothing's going to happen…" he reasoned to himself with a wry chuckle. "He doesn't know I'm here…" Turning, he kept walking…

… Before promptly turning again, the soft sound of shifting sand reaching his honed ears. After turning, he noticed a tiny lizard-like Hollow scuttling across the ground. It blinked and stuck its' forked tongue out, tasting the air for Reiatsu. The larger Hollow licked his lips and rubbed his stomach.

"I get it…! I'm just hungry… Not sick… I might as well have a little snack…" he muttered before launching himself at the tiny creature, gathering the squirming Hollow up in his mouth. He got up and turned around, grabbing either end of the lizard-like Hollow that hung out of his mouth. Just as he was about to bite down, he became aware of something…

… Something was standing right in front of him… Something…

… _Tall…_

… A scream of terror echoed out over the desert of Hueco Mundo…

_Splatter!_

_Karakura Town a few weeks later…_

Ichigo sat back in the swivel chair in his room with a sigh of contentment, a thick book in his hands. The bright sun shone through his window, signalling that the summer holidays had just begun and he wasn't going to waste any of the days to come. Aizen was gone, his Shinigami powers were back and there were no enemies to fight. With nothing but a quiet summer ahead of him, he was going to enjoy every last bit of it.

He was vaguely aware of Rukia who sat on his bed watching a small portable television that he had for his room. He started to ignore her had he opened his book at the marked page, setting his dark blue bookmark with the number '15' on it to the side.

"Hey… Have you seen this, Ichigo?" Rukia asked him all of a sudden.

A disgruntled Ichigo looked up from his book, a frown marring his features. "What?" he grunted in annoyance before looking back down at his page.

"The news. Look. People are going missing," Rukia told him as she turned the TV to face him.

Ichigo leaned forwards slightly to see what she was talking about. On the screen was a stony-faced reporter, his eyebrows furrowed as he delivered the serious news that, apparently, a third person in Karakura Town had gone missing over the last two weeks with little to no explanation as to why and that the police were beginning to suspect foul play.

Shaking his head, he leaned back. "It's sad, but there's nothing we can do. We haven't detected any Hollows, so it must be a human. It's not our problem," Ichigo sighed as he looked back at a page of his book again.

"Ichigo! It's not just happening in Karakura Town, you know!" Rukia argued.

Ichigo didn't appear to be listening and let out a chuckle as he observed the page in front of him. "Oh, Falstaff… What will they do with you…?" he mumbled with a smirk. Rukia suddenly leaned forward and pulled the book out of his hands. "Hey!" Ichigo protested. "I was reading that!"

"This could be serious, Ichigo!" she shouted.

"Maybe, but I'm just like you. I need to wait for orders from Soul Society to take matters into my own hands. Until it's proven that it's relevant to Soul Society, there's nothing we can do and you know that," Ichigo grumbled as he pulled the book out of a crestfallen Rukia's hands. "Now, don't take my book again, midget."

After a few seconds of silence, Ichigo found himself stopping himself from reading his book and noting her lack of protest. Usually, when he called her a midget, she would come out with guns blazing, arms and legs flying in every direction in a futile attempt to land a blow on the redheaded teenager who was, more than often, prepared for such a thing. What he wasn't prepared for, however, was silence.

Peeking over his book, he saw her sitting on his bed, her eyes lowered and glued to the TV in her lap, her hands clutching it tightly. If Ichigo knew any better, he would have said that she looked sad. Depressed, maybe…

"Don't worry, Rukia. It's probably some organisation if it's happening elsewhere. The police are already on the case. Once they find one or two members, they'll be able to bust the organisation. It'll be fine," Ichigo told her, his voice in monotone.

Rukia seemed to instantly perk up, her cheeks going slightly red. "Who said I was worrying?!" she snapped.

"You when you tried to drag me into a mess that neither of us are a part of," Ichigo deadpanned.

"At least I'm not a strawberry!" Rukia blushed in embarrassment, trying to come up with a comeback.

Ichigo didn't look up from his book. "Better a strawberry than a midget…"

"Oh, that's it!" Rukia stood up and rolled up her metaphorical sleeves.

"Ichi-nii!" a voice suddenly called from downstairs. "Dinner!"

Never taking his eyes from the book, Ichigo swivelled his chair around and stood up, Rukia's punch missing him by a mile. He headed for the door while Rukia spent the next few seconds vaguely wondering what had just happened before snapping out of her daze and chasing after him.

"Wait for me!"

_A few weeks later…_

Ichigo woke with a start as a soft tapping could be heard on his window. He slowly sat up and looked around him, his eyes becoming drawn to the window as it gently slid open and a redheaded man wearing some kind of black and white uniform slipped into the room, his long red hair tied back in a spiky ponytail. Intricate tattoos spanned out from his eyebrows and down his body and a katana hung at his waist.

Ichigo quickly pulled off his bedcovers and stood up. "Why are you in my room, Renji?!" he hissed, wiping the sleep out of his eyes as he glared at the man – Renji.

Renji brought a finger up to his lips. "Where's Rukia?" he whispered. "We need you both in Soul Society. It's urgent."

Biting back a protest, he grunted in annoyance before motioning for Renji to follow him. Opening the door with a click, the two men tiptoed down the hallway towards another door which Ichigo quietly tapped. Rukia soon emerged, wiping her eyes with one hand.

"… What are you…?" she began before trailing off at the sight of Renji who wordlessly stood behind Ichigo, a serious look on his face. Rukia opened her door, allowing both men to step inside. She slowly closed the door behind her and leaned against it. Flicking the light on, she turned to them. "What happened?" she whispered.

"There's trouble in Soul Society…" he responded.

"We get that… You wouldn't be here at this time of the night if there wasn't…" Ichigo deadpanned.

Renji cleared his throat and shot a glare in Ichigo's direction before continuing. "… To be honest… I don't know… I haven't been informed yet. Neither have the other Captains and Vice-Captains. Sōtaichō want you and Rukia there before he begins…"

"Us? I could understand me. I'm a Vice-Captain. If it's so important, why is Ichigo coming?" Rukia asked with a confused expression. Ichigo shot a glare in her direction.

"It's something about Ichigo's knowledge of the human world," Renji informed them. "I don't think Sōtaichō completely knows what's going on either…" Renji paused for a few seconds. "Either way, he wishes to see you two immediately," he finally stated.

"I'll get Kon set up. I'll be back in a minute," Ichigo told them.

The next day…

"IIII-CHIIII-GOOOO!" Kurosaki Isshin yelled dramatically as he burst through Ichigo's door with a flying kick only to have his foot connect with the window which smashed from the force, sending him hurtling out the second story window to the ground below.

He yelped upon impact and lay on the ground for a few seconds, waiting for the throbbing to stop when he suddenly noticed something land on his head. He sat up, rubbing his head as a piece of paper slowly fluttered down to the ground having been knocked off its' place on his head. Isshin picked it up and read it.

'_Dear Oyaji,_

_Had to leave for Soul Society with Rukia last night. They called for an urgent meeting._

_Ichigo._

_P.S. Don't let Kon do anything stupid.'_

Isshin paused as the sounds of snoring echoed out through the broken window. He scrambled to his feet and made a break for the kitchen where he fell down beside a large poster of a beautiful woman.

"Oh, my love! Our son has left without so much as a goodbye! Where did I go wrong?!" the weeping man yelled at the poster, tears spilling from his eyes in something akin to rivers. As he did so, a bemused black-haired girl turned away from the doorway and shouted up the stairs.

"Yuzu! He's gone crazy again!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Enlightenment

_Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, Slender Man/Slender or any Shakespeare works._

_BLEACH_

Ichigo knelt in front of the Sōtaichō, unable to help himself from feeling slightly uneasy. His usual arrogance had faded under the stares of every Taichō and fukutaichō in the Gotei 13 and he had soon found himself kneeling before the old Shinigami, as did every other Shinigami in the room, including Yamamoto himself.

The old Shinigami knelt on the other side of his desk, a thick booklet in his hands. He stared at the cover of it, never once tearing his eyes away from it before finally letting out a long, low sigh. He turned to Ichigo.

"… I suppose that you're wondering why you're here…" he frowned. Unable to speak, Ichigo nodded and the aged Shinigami immediately continued. "We have found ourselves facing something that… we can't identify…" he admitted. "We have had to turn to one with knowledge of the human world…"

"Is it a Hollow?" Ichigo finally asked.

"Again, we don't know, but we believe it to be so. You humans… You have legends in your world that we Shinigami know nothing of," Yamamoto told him with a knowing glance. "We hope to know if this creature matches anything that you know of."

Yamato slowly handed Ichigo the booklet which, upon further inspection, Ichigo discovered to be a report or sorts. Yamato continued to speak, one of his gnarled, wrinkled hands reaching up to stroke his long beard as he did so.

"Please have a look at this report. It has some of the details of what one of our Shinigami saw as well as a drawing of what this creature is believed to look like," Yamamoto informed him.

Ichigo began to flip through the report and, as he did so, things began to click into place. The other Shinigami watched with confused expressions as they saw his initially-surprised expression slowly become and ever-deepening frown.

'_Sick feeling, slight fever, partial amnesia… Developed further upon other sightings… Everything in this report is adding up,'_ Ichigo thought to himself with a wry, yet hopeful and all too fleeting, smile. _'If this is what that Shinigami saw, he must be mistaken…'_

The aged Shinigami leaned forward slightly as Ichigo turned the page again. "Do you see anything you recognise?" he asked, unable to contain himself. However, he could only watch as Ichigo froze after looking at the picture, his wry smile soon returning. The Substitute Shinigami let out a mirthless chuckle.

"I think so…" Ichigo told him, his tone serious and the smile falling from his face.

Ignoring the shocked whispers of the Shinigami who surrounded them, Yamamoto spoke up, his voice drowning out the noises of the other Shinigami. "Please go on," he stated, trying to maintain a politeness in his voice to keep Ichigo on their side.

"Well… to be honest… I'm not even sure where to begin…" Ichigo sighed as he flipped through the report again. "As far as I was aware until now, this thing was a story that parents told to scare their kids into behaving at bedtime."

"It can't be that bad, then…" a long, white-haired man in a Shinigami uniform – Ukitake smiled slightly, his expression one of slight relief.

"Well, if it was being told to young kids, they'd obviously tone it down, wouldn't they?" Rukia interjected.

"Rukia's actually right," Ichigo informed them. "Most children's stories are somewhat watered down. The real story was much, much worse. I remember hearing it a few years ago."

"This story tells of what this creature is?" Byakuya asked, his voice almost disbelieving.

Ichigo shook his head. "It doesn't say what it is, but rather what it can do," he corrected. "It goes into more detail than this report either way."

"Can you please tell us more?" Yamamoto asked, leaning forward ever so slightly.

"Well… It's an old story… I'll start from the beginning…" Ichigo took a deep breath and began as the Shinigami all stared at him intently. "The story is about a being that, for lack of a better name, humans dub the Slender Man."

"Is this regarding his appearance?" Yamamoto inquired, remembering the picture which detailed a tall, emaciated-looking man who was clad in black, tentacle-like appendages sprouting from his back, his deathly pale head sporting no hair. At least, he would have been a man had his facial area not been devoid of all facial features.

"Yeah. He's supposed to be really thin," Ichigo nodded, never once taking his eyes from the report. "Anyway, the story supposedly takes place sometime in the 16th century. The exact location, I couldn't tell you. It was somewhere in Japan, though. A forest, to be precise. Some people apparently think that it was Aokigahara, apparently, but… I couldn't tell you…"

"What's so special about this 'Aokigahara?'" Unohana – a kind-looking, medic with long black hair that was twisted in a braid in front of her chest – asked with a gentle smile.

"It's… uh… not something people like to talk about… It has a dark history…" Ichigo stuttered, trying to find the right words. Nemu – a young woman with almost-emotionless green eyes and long black hair that was pulled into a braid – suddenly leaned over and whispered something into her ear, her knowledge of the humans coming into play. After a few seconds, the medic looked down.

"I apologise for bringing the subject up…" she quickly apologised before falling unusually quiet, the smile falling away.

"Do go on," Yamamoto prompted, dragging Ichigo back to the matter at hand.

"As I was saying, it takes place in a forest that lay near a small village. Supposedly, children began to go missing from the village. These children all had one thing in common. They were last seen in the forest – a place where they usually went to play. So, naturally, a group of villagers banded together to find the missing children. They split up and spread out, travelling all over the forest to find their children.

"One man, however, found himself feeling increasingly stranger as he walked, his mind telling him that there was someone behind him but, every time he turned, there was nothing there. Despite his paranoia, he knew that he had to keep going because his son had gone missing, the thought of which had deeply troubled and disturbed him. He travelled further into the forest, stopping only to put oil into his lamp and never ceasing to call for the missing children.

"The man suddenly saw something out of the corner of his eye but, when he turned, there was nothing there. He became certain, though, that he wasn't alone. He raised his lamp and started looking around himself, searching for whatever was following him and shouting for it to show itself. It never did, but he had a feeling that it would slip up sooner or later and he would catch it then.

"After walking for what seemed like hours for him, he found that it was getting too late and was preparing to turn back. He did so and walked in the other direction, never once seeing the creature that he had seen before, but he felt it staring at him and he felt increasingly sick and tired as he walked.

"Eventually, he caught sight of the creature again and turned, catching it before it could escape. When he did, he saw something that literally haunted him for the rest of his days. It was a tall, thin, black-clad man with no face that he could see and something odd and writhing branched off his back like tentacles.

"The man was obviously terrified and he started to run, looking back every so often. The creature wasn't running after him. It wasn't walking either, but… it was still moving, standing there silently the more he looked at it, but he soon found that that wasn't a good idea because, the more he looked at it, the more it made him feel sick and dizzy, so he decided to limit how often he looked back. But, every time he did, the creature had gotten closer.

"Eventually, he burst out of the forest and ran back to his village as quickly as he could. Noticing that the creature had not followed him into the village, he quickly told the villagers of what had happened and he ascertained that what he had seen was some kind of apparition or demon. Needless to say, the villagers didn't believe him as the other men of the village who hadn't travelled quite as far as him slowly began to return, having seen nothing of the sort. They didn't find the children.

"The paranoid man hid himself in his house, carefully writing down his experiences. The villagers simply reasoned that something had frightened him so badly that he was no longer sane, but he didn't believe them and continued to record his experiences with the creature that he dubbed the 'Slender Man.' He recorded seeing the Slender Man outside his window on occasions, but no one else seemed to notice.

"After writing about his increasing sickness every time he met the man, he finally wrote one last message. 'I know he's out there,' he wrote. 'I can see him beyond the glass of my window. Even when I cannot see him, I can feel him. Every time he comes near, I feel worse. I am never alone. He is making me ill. I have been vomiting and coughing up blood. My nose is bleeding. I find it hard to remember things and I can barely breathe anymore. My door is barred shut, but it will not keep him out for long. I now know that he is responsible for the disappearance of my son. I'm so sorry for not protecting him, my love, but worry not, for I will join you both soon. I cannot run. I will go outside and do what needs to be done.'"

Ichigo took a deep breath. "That's it. The symptoms that he listed were identical to those of radiation poisoning, so it was originally thought to have just been a well-planned story made up by someone who did their research. The kids version is so watered down that it's unrecognisable. It's simply about a naughty boy who didn't do what his parents told him to do, so the Slender Man got him. This story, on the other hand, was reportedly found on documents, but that's become somewhat of a legend. No one believes it anymore."

"Do you?" Yamamoto asked.

Ichigo's cocky attitude quickly returned. "I'm talking to a Shinigami – something that I had once never thought existed before I met Rukia. You tell me. Honestly, I'll believe anything, now. Either the Slender Man is nothing more than a legend and what your Shinigami saw was wrong or he really did see it. To be honest, I hope that it isn't the latter for the sake of your Shinigami."

"… Why…?" Yamamoto inquired, his voice hesitant.

"Well…" Ichigo fidgeted slightly, handing the aged Shinigami the report. He stared at his hands as if he was trying to come up with the right words for a delicate situation. He frowned and, with a sigh, he finally began to speak. "You see, that story isn't the only story that there is about him and… in every story, the person who is stalked by him… ends up dead… Supposedly, anyway… It's more like… they go missing, for lack of a better word…"

Yamamoto suddenly became very serious. "That Shinigami could be in danger…" Cursing under his breath, he shot to his feet and gestured towards his fukutaichō – a man with snow-white hair that was neatly swept back, amber-coloured eyes and a black moustache – who was known as Sasakibe Chōjirō. "Send out some men to retrieve him!"

"Yes, sir!" Sasakibe saluted before hurrying out of the room.

The very agitated Sōtaichō then bustled out of the room, a frown marring his features as he did so and a million questions running through his mind that demanded to be answered, yet could not be answered and it troubled him to no end.

Meanwhile, Ichigo stayed in the room only for the others to crowd around him en masse. Ichigo stood up and faced them. Ukitake was the first to approach him, obviously with a question that he wanted to ask.

"Are you sure about this, Kurosaki-kun…?" he asked hesitantly.

Ichigo nodded. "Well, everything fits…" he trailed off.

"So, this… What did you call it…?" Kenpachi – a well-built man with an eye patch, many scars and black hair – inquired absentmindedly.

"The Slender Man – for lack of a better name, of course," Ichigo informed him.

"So… It's strong, isn't it…?" Kenpachi smirked, his mind already set on fighting whatever this creature was.

"You can't be serious!" Hitsugaya – someone with the appearance of a young boy (but was actually much older) with short, spiky white hair and turquoise eyes – exclaimed, his eyes widening in shock as he did so.

"If I died, I wouldn't care," Kenpachi proudly stated as he crossed his arms. "The ultimate battle… If my death comes from it, then all the better!"

"You must be mad… Remind me again about why I associate with such people…" Byakuya – a man with slate grey eyes and long black hair that was adorned with long, thin hairpieces – mumbled in an almost-haughty tone.

"It's… your job, sir… You don't have a choice…" Renji responded hesitantly, a bead of sweat running down his cheek from the shock of being asked such an obvious question.

"Quite right… Otherwise, I would have nothing to do with such people…" Byakuya nodded, satisfied with the answer.

"Um… Yes, sir…" Renji sighed quietly, making sure that his boss wouldn't be able to hear him do so.

While the others muttered amongst themselves about this new threat, one remained very silent – a small, blushing girl with pink hair with a cross-bone hair clip and dark pink eyes. She stared at the floor, never once uttering a word.

Ichigo looked down at her as she glanced at Kenpachi and then went back to staring at the floor. _'What do you say to kids..?!'_ Ichigo thought to himself. _'This is a delicate situation that needed to be handled… delicately! Quick! What did I say to Karin and Yuzu in situations like this?!'_ His inner search for the answer yielded nothing. _'I was never in these situations with Karin and Yuzu! They didn't need it!'_

Deciding that he needed to say something, he looked down at the child and, in his usual delinquent-like manner, he grunted, _"What's your problem?" He inwardly cringed as the girl looked up at him. 'That could have gone much better…'_

She paused before finally speaking, her voice quiet and hesitant. "What if… Ken-chan fights this thing… and doesn't come back this time…?" Ichigo internally let out a sigh of relief. She hadn't noticed. It was probably because she spent too much time with the forceful-sounding Kenpachi that she didn't notice Ichigo's lack of tact.

No one but Ichigo heard her. That bothered him. He was on his own for this one. After thinking carefully, quietly cleared his throat. "You know Kenpachi better than anyone else. He's strong."

"… But… What if Slendy is stronger…?" she trailed off.

'_She got his nickname in one!'_ Ichigo momentarily thought, slightly taken aback in surprise before he decided to do the one thing that he could do. It was time to get… sentimental… Ugh… "You… uh… You just need to believe in him!" he smiled awkwardly and pumped his fist slightly in an encouraging manner, yet not so much that anyone would notice. He would literally die if anyone heard him say that…

To his surprise, Yachiru brightened up and nodded. Turning, she walked over to Kenpachi and scrambled up his back. The older Shinigami didn't complain as she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on.

'Oh, the heartache and the thousand natural shocks…' Ichigo sighed in relief as she left, still slightly shaken from having to do a very un-Ichigo-like thing. 'The simplicity of children never ceases to amaze me…'

Just then, the door burst open and Yamamoto walked in with his fukutaichō. He didn't look very happy, judging from the frown that was currently etched into his face. He stopped in front of the other Shinigami.

"We went to Research and Development to track down the Shinigami…" Sasakibe began, his head low. Yamamoto, however, was the one to finish that thought.

"A Shinigami has gone missing…"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Empty Space

_Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, Slender Man/Slender or any Shakespeare works._

_BLEACH_

Ichigo woke up to the sound of gentle knocking on his door. With a grunt, he threw the covers off and climbed out of his bed before slowly walking over to the door just as another quiet knock sounded. He opened the door to see a sheepish-looking Rukia standing at his door in her baggy pink pyjamas.

"Sorry for waking you up…" she whispered, a slight blush of embarrassment gracing her pale cheeks.

With a sigh, Ichigo turned away and walked back into his room. He didn't shut the door which Rukia took as a sign to enter. She turned to close the door and, when she turned around, Ichigo was sitting on his bed, slouched over with his arms draped over his knees. Rukia briefly marvelled at how Ichigo could sleep in his thin white t-shirt and blue shorts on such a cold night, but she was drawn away from the thought when Ichigo ran his hand through his messy orange hair and looked her in the eye.

"Can't sleep?" he asked quietly. Rukia was silent for a few seconds.

"… I'm worried…" she finally told him, refusing to meet his gaze.

"Is this about that meeting that we just got back from?" he inquired.

"What else could it be about?!" she snapped a little too loudly. Realising that she had been too loud, she sighed and fell quiet. "… How do we beat something that's unbeatable…?"

"It could end up being something totally different," Ichigo somewhat attempted to reassure her, his voice gruff despite his initial intentions.

"… You could end up being right…" Rukia responded sadly.

"I could end up being wrong. Don't be so pessimistic," he whispered, his perpetual frown deepening.

"… I can't help it…" Rukia moaned. "… A Shinigami has gone missing and Soul Society is in a panic… Everyone I love is in danger…"

Just as Ichigo was about to make a point, Rukia's Denreishinki began to beep. It was in Rukia's hands in mere seconds. Flipping in open, she quickly looked up at Ichigo, all hints of sadness quickly disappearing, the look of hopelessness in her eyes filling with one of duty.

Ichigo didn't bother to look for Kon. He simply grabbed his wooden Substitute Shinigami badge and, slamming it against his chest, his soul leapt out and his lifeless body crumpled to the floor. Rukia, on the other hand, pulled a Gikongan dispenser out of her pocket and clicked the top which was shaped like a white rabbit. A small, round, green pill popped out of the dispenser and into Rukia's mouth. Upon swallowing the pill, Rukia was immediately expelled from her Gigai.

They were out the window and heading towards the source of the Hollow attack in a few seconds, all thoughts solely focused on getting there and stopping the Hollow before it could do any damage to people or Pluses.

The night was silent as they ran down the streets, often taking the time to jump over roofs as a shortcut, the buildings flying past as they ran down the road with no people to been seen and all of the cars parked by the sides of the road.

Aside from the Shinigami, there were no other noises on that calm, clear night. Nothing except the gentle breeze rustling through the leaves of trees and bushes. The sky was clear and dotted with tiny stars.

Neither of them could have guessed that a Hollow was attacking and neither of them expected to see what they did as they rounded the corner of a building and happened upon the rather small Hollow. Rukia narrowed her eyes as they landed near it. The Hollow didn't seem to be aware of their presence.

"That… looks like an Adjuchas…" Rukia states as she observed the creature that had its' back turned to her.

From what they could see, it was a human-sized Hollow with a hole through its stomach. It was brown and covered in shaggy fur. Its back was hunched over slightly, its dirty, clawed paws trailing along the ground and two white dog-like ears could be seen from the top of its head that appeared to come from its mask. Its real ears were two visible holes that lay beneath its fur, one of which lay on either side of his head. Its large, floppy jowls dropped down from either side of its face, stationary as it stood very still, not even moving its abnormally long brown tail. It was, for all intents and purposes, an anthropomorphic dog.

"It should have noticed us by now…" Ichigo commented, removing Zangetsu from his back and holding it up.

Rukia nodded. "Something isn't right. It should have noticed our Reiatsu." Rukia suddenly paused and her eyes slowly widened. "Look, Ichigo!" She pointed. "It has a Human!"

'She's right,' Ichigo noted inwardly as he spotted a young man in a pair of blue pyjamas. His hair was brown colour and his fringe covered his eyes slightly, but no so much that they couldn't see the blank look in them. Whoever it was that was standing there was being controlled by this Hollow.

Cursing outwardly, Ichigo immediately jumped into the fray with a shout, bringing his Zanpakutō down upon the dog. However, just as the sword was about to connect, the dog twitched and it was gone in an instant. Suddenly, it reappeared behind Ichigo before he could realise that it had used Sonído.

"… Tail Swipe…" it droned before quickly slamming its tail into Ichigo's left side with incredible power, sending the startled Substitute Shinigami into a building with a loud crash. It was close to him in an instant, its tail raised again before delivering another sharp blow to his solar plexus and knocking the wind out of him. A small trickle of blood slowly started to find its way out of the side of his mouth and down his chin as he coughed and gasped, the dust from the crumbling wall slowly coating his clothes and hair as he did so.

"Ichigo!" Rukia called in a panic, unsheathing her sword and holding it out in front of her, catching the attention of the Hollow which turned to make a move. "Mae, Sode no Shirayuki!"

As she began to turn her blade in a circle in a counter-clockwise motion, the blade, hilt and tsuba of the Zanpakutō started to become completely white, the tsuba becoming a hollow snowflake-like circle. A white ribbon formed from the pommel and began to float around Sode no Shirayuki in a circle as a blast of cold air rushed out in all directions.

Rukia punctured the ground with the tip of her blade as the Hollow watched her somewhat warily, its filthy claws held at the ready. "Tsugi no mai, Hakuren!" she called out, as a large ice circle formed on the ground.

Rukia then punctured the ground in front of her four times, the shape of which was something akin to a semi-circle. As ice particles began to flow up from the punctures in the ground, she took a battle stance. Suddenly, a powerful rush of cold air surged from the tip of the blade, flash freezing everything in its path as it went.

The Hollow, however, was quick to dodge the freezing blast of air with its Sonído. It suddenly appeared behind Rukia in the same manner as it had with Ichigo. However, unlike the Substitute Shinigami, Rukia was aware of what it was going to do. She'd already seen it doing it once before.

She held her sword out, performing a slashing motion as she quickly turned. "San no mai, Shirafune!" Before the Hollow could realise what had happened, the sword began to elongate and it slashed the Adjuchas, slowly freezing its body. Rukia raised her blade and brought it down on the frozen Hollow, causing it to shatter and crumble into a freezing heap of ice.

… The Hollow was dead…

… That was wrong…

"That shouldn't have happened…" Rukia mumbled. "That was an Adjuchas…"

Suddenly, a noise brought her out of her thoughts. It was a low grunt and Rukia turned to see the Human that had been controlled by the Hollow holding his head as the link to the vanquished Hollow slowly began to snap, causing a headache. Eventually, the man opened his eyes and blinked.

"What… happened…?" he muttered to himself, looking around and eventually walking towards a building on his left which Rukia presumed to be his house. He opened the door and walked inside. "I must have had a migraine or a seizure or something… I thought I was in my living room…" He chuckled at the absurdity of it all. "I'd better visit the doctor tomorrow…" He closed the door behind him, closing out the warm night air.

Turning, Rukia saw Ichigo slowly began to pull himself out of the wall with a pained grunt. Rukia quickly sheathed her sword which slowly reverted back to its sealed form as she did so and hurried over to Ichigo's side, helping him to pick himself up.

"Are you alright, Ichigo?" Rukia asked, her concern evident in her voice.

"Yeah… I think I'm OK…" Ichigo responded with a frown.

"Are you really OK? You should have been up from something like that a lot faster…" Rukia stated.

"I…" Ichigo seemed to draw a blank. Suddenly, his head snapped up and he looked towards a building, a look of dazed confusion clouding his features.

"What's wrong?" Rukia inquired, looking around in an attempt to see what he was fixated on.

"I… thought I saw something…" Ichigo mumbled as he stared up at the empty space on top of a building, internally wondering what he had thought had been there and if there was anything there in the first place. _'… Why am I looking up there at all…?' _he pondered, confusion washing over him as he lost track of his thoughts and fell into something akin to a daze.

Rukia stared at him for a few seconds before sighing. "We'd better get you home… You must be sick…" He certainly didn't look well. Rukia noticed that he was becoming pale and tired. _'The Hollow attack certainly couldn't have hurt him much, so he must be sick,'_ she reasoned with herself. _'But, why didn't he show signs earlier…?'_

Rukia quickly shook that thought out of her head and began to focus on the more important matter of getting Ichigo home. Taking a hold of his arm with one hand and wrapping the other around his back, she began to guide him back home.

"Are you feeling OK?" Rukia asked as they rounded the corner. She received no response other than Ichigo's slow, unsteady, heavy footsteps as he plodded on, completely shutting out the world around him. Rukia tried again. "Do you feel tired?" Nothing. Rukia felt her impatience beginning to rise. "If you feel sick, just tell me!" she finally snapped. Nothing. Ichigo wasn't listening and didn't look like he'd be starting any time soon.

Eventually, though, Rukia had slowly and safely directed Ichigo back home – something which had taken her much longer than she would have originally liked it to have been. Looking between the locked front door and the open window that they had left through, she came to the only conclusion that she could. She repositioned Ichigo so that he was lying heavily on her back.

"Alright, Ichigo. We're going to jump up, OK?" told him.

Ichigo didn't respond, just as she had expected. With a sigh, she crouched down and jumped, somehow managing to lift the heavy orange-haired Substitute Shinigami to the window which she all but fell through and landed on the bed, Ichigo's limp form lying on top of her.

With a grunt of annoyance and slight anger at the situation, Rukia pushed Ichigo off of her with more than a little difficulty and, having pulled herself back to her feet, she dusted herself off and began to pull Ichigo towards his body, carefully placing him into it. Pulling back the covers of his bed, she awkwardly lifted him up onto it and pulled the covers up over his sleeping body.

With that done, she was left wondering what to do next. She placed a hand on his forehead. There was no fever. Not that she could feel, anyway. Taking a step back, she pondered going to Ichigo's father. He was a Human doctor, she remembered. Maybe he knew what was going on. Ichigo was undoubtedly either sick or injured, but was he sick enough to need a doctor?

With a reluctant sigh, she found that she couldn't leave Ichigo as he was without receiving some kind of reassurance. She quickly exited the room and headed down the hallway as quickly as she could before stopping outside the door to Isshin's room.

However, after raising a hand to knock, she suddenly found herself hesitating. _'What if this is all nothing?'_ she asked herself._ 'He'll be mad if I wake him up… But… what if it _is_ something…?'_

Rukia reluctantly knocked the door, eventually deciding that it was better to know for certain whether it was really something serious or not. She waited for a few seconds and, hearing no noise, she was about to turn away, her bravery failing her in the face of the former-Captain. However, just as she was turning to leave, a tired-looking Isshin appeared at the door and gave her a slight smile.

"Is something the matter?" he whispered, careful not to wake anyone up by being too loud.

Taking a deep breath, Rukia began to speak. "Well, Ichigo and I went out to fight a Hollow about an hour ago. We managed to beat it, but… Ichigo got hurt a little and then he started acting really strangely…"

"Strangely?" Isshin asked in confusion.

"Yeah… He's really tired and pale and, after a few minutes, he wasn't listening or speaking to me and I had to bring him back here and he just sort of collapsed and wouldn't move… He didn't have a fever, but he's still really sick… I know it…" She sighed. "Am I worrying too much…?"

"Well, the fact that he doesn't have a fever and is still displaying these symptoms warrants some kind of check-up… I'll have a look at him," Isshin smiled at her reassuringly and walked past her with a yawn.

'_Huh…'_ Rukia thought. _'I don't know why Ichigo thinks so little of him… He's really nice!'_

It wasn't long before they were back in Ichigo's room and, already, Isshin had noticed that something was wrong. He bent down beside Ichigo and placed a hand on his forehead. Shaking his head slightly, he turned back to Rukia.

"I thought you said that he had no fever…" Isshin frowned.

"B-but… he didn't…" Rukia stammered.

"Well, it appears that he has one now," Isshin informed her.

"But he really -!" she was cut off as Isshin held up a hand and smiled.

"It's alright. I believe you. Can you please run to the bathroom for me and get the thermometer?" he requested.

With a quick nod, Rukia quickly left and Isshin was left in the room alone with his barely-conscious son. Looking back at him, Isshin could see what Rukia had been talking about. He was pale and listless, registering nothing around him. However, his face had become incredibly flushed and his newfound fever was certainly very high. There was no doubt about it.

Ichigo was _very_ ill. Isshin had already made up his mind to watch him that night and phone Ryūken the next morning. His fever was too high and Isshin could see new symptoms popping up by the second as Ichigo's breathing began to become laboured. His illness was moving too quickly. Nonetheless, he dreaded the next morning when he would have to explain such a thing to his two little girls. One thing was certain, though.

Ichigo needed medical attention and Isshin was prepared to go to any lengths to get it for him.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Poison

_Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, Slender Man/Slender or any Shakespeare works._

_BLEACH_

"How is he, Ryūken?" Isshin asked the bustling doctor in front of him, his face straight. The silver-haired doctor sighed and pushed his black glasses up his nose before brushing a long strand of hair out of his face and straightening his white lab coat as he stood up straight.

"It's exactly as it looks," Ryūken responded from across the small, private hospital room. "It's a bad case of Reiatsu Poisoning."

"Reiatsu Poisoning?" Rukia inquired from the corner of the room as she took notes to send back to Seireitei in a report, something that needed to be completed when a Shinigami – or, in this case, a Substitute Shinigami – was unable to report for duty.

Ryūken nodded. "Yes. It was something that was seen quite often in the Quincy who came back from the war, if I remember the stories correctly."

"It takes a powerful and incompatible Reiatsu, though," Isshin mused. "It shouldn't come on this quickly, either."

"That's what's odd…" Ryūken muttered as he checked the unconscious Ichigo's temperature again. "Still too high…"

"Any ideas about what's going on here?" Isshin grunted.

"I don't like that tone," Ryūken frowned. "I'm not only violating ethics by treating him. I'm breaking Quincy law!"

"Ah! But, you care about your family which is why you aren't leaving him with another doctor!" Isshin laughed.

"I can't leave him with another doctor! They couldn't treat him, you imbecile!" Ryūken snapped.

"I'm confused…" Rukia suddenly interjected from her place in the corner.

"It doesn't matter…" Ryūken groaned in annoyance. "All I can do is keep him stable until I can obtain the tools to extract the Reiatsu from him…"

"How long should that take?" Isshin asked.

"I'm not sure but, when I'm done, the Reiatsu can be tested to see which Hollow it came from," Ryūken replied.

"Are you certain that it's Reiatsu Poisoning?" Rukia inquired.

Ryūken nodded. "It's faint, but there's another Reiatsu deep inside him. It's difficult to detect and it's impossible to distinguish where it came from at this point, but there's definitely something there."

Rukia frowned and closed her eyes, concentrating on Ichigo and the Reiatsu that had apparently built up inside of him. Sure enough, there was something in there. There was a large amount of it, but it was obscured by Ichigo's Reiatsu, thus making the process of identification impossible.

"When do you think you can get the equipment?" Isshin asked.

"I don't know…" Ryūken sighed. "I would like to say that I'm absolutely certain that I can get it, but…"

Isshin looked over at Ichigo's sleeping face, noting how pale and flushed he looked, and gently placed his hand on top of his son's, rubbing is slowly with his thumb. "So… it isn't certain…"

"Is there no other way to get it out?!" Rukia quizzed in a panic as the reality of the situation set in.

"No. Human tools can't get it out. What we need is a device that can store and transfer Reiatsu," Ryūken informed her, shaking his head. Rukia cringed as the expression on his face warped into something akin to defeat.

Rukia paused, a million thoughts all running through her head at the same time. Quickly trying to sort through them to find some resemblance of an answer to their questions, she quickly blurted out the first idea that came to her.

"What about Urahara-san?!" she all but yelled.

The two men turned to look at her, each looking incredibly confused and a little shocked by her slight outburst. "What do you mean?" Isshin asked her.

"Well… I just thought that… if anyone's going to have it… Urahara-san will…!" Rukia responded, attempting to justify herself.

"Why not Soul Society? Wouldn't the medics have something?" Ryūken asked, suddenly getting an idea.

Rukia, unfortunately, shook her head. "We don't see things like this in Soul Society. Urahara has been developing all sorts of things, though…"

There was a silence before Isshin smiled and nodded. "You trust him, right?" Rukia simply nodded, not sure if there was anything else that she could say. "Then, go. Hurry up."

With a shaky yet wide smile, Rukia immediately bolted out the doors of the hospital room and Isshin and Ryūken were left to listen to her quick, soft footsteps echoing down the hallway before the self-closing door shut with a quiet click, shutting out all of the sounds that were emanating from the hall outside.

Isshin turned around as soon as he was sure that Rukia was gone. He dared not look at his son's face, avoiding the shadow of death that hung around the young man, instead simply focusing on Ichigo's cold hand that still lay beneath his own and, reaching out, he clasped the freezing appendage in both hands in a vain attempt to warm Ichigo up, even if it was just a little bit, his fatherly instincts running non-stop, yet his mind knowing that he was unable to do anything.

"… Y-you'll help him… right…?" Isshin half-begged quietly, the lump that was stuck in his throat preventing him from speaking clearly.

With a quiet sigh, Ryūken walked around the bed and placed a hand on Isshin's shoulder, looking the other way uneasily as he did so. "… I'll do my best, Isshin… I can make no promises…"

Isshin nodded, content with the answer. It wasn't one of reassurance, but it was one of truth and one that he appreciated much more than being fed lies just to make himself feel better. With a quiet sigh, Isshin descended into silence.

_Later…_

Rukia's breath came out in short pants, her shoes tapping softly, yet quickly, against the pavement as she neared Urahara's shop. Pushing away the thought of how much she would owe Urahara for this, she rounded the corner and the shop quickly came into sight.

Upon reaching the shop, she slammed the door open and stepped inside, frantically looking around for someone. Her eyes suddenly fell on a tall man who stood up from behind one of the shelves, a piece of Urahara's merchandise in his large hand and a cardboard box filled with merchandise lying at his feet, ready to be placed on the shelves.

He was a tall, muscular, lightly tanned man with cornrowed hair and a large handlebar moustache which was connected to his long sideburns. He wore a pair of rectangular-shaped glasses, a white muscle shirt, grey trousers and a blue apron.

"Tessai-san…!" Rukia breathed a sigh of relief as she spotted the large man and watched as he walked over to her. When he spoke, his voice was eerily calm.

"Don't slam the doors," he told her, his volume never rising beyond what could be considered normal.

A droplet of sweat trickled down the side of Rukia's face as she smiled awkwardly and spoke, her voice shaking slightly as she attempted to control her conflicted emotions about the whole matter. "… Yes, sir…"

"Oh… Kuchiki-san…" a tired-sounding voice droned from the side of the room near one of the entranceways to a hallway.

Rukia quickly whirled around and took a good look at the man, her tired mind barely registering who stood there. He was a tall, lean-built man with light skin, grey eyes and messy, pale-blond hair, strands of which framed the sides of the face and hung between his eyes. His chin was stubbled. He wore a dark coat with a white diamond pattern along its bottom half with a dark green shirt and trousers underneath it. He wore a pair of geta and a striped dark green and white bucket hat. He held a fan up in front of his face, his tired eyes peering over the top.

"Urahara-san!" Rukia began, stepping forwards as Urahara dully noted the frantic look in her eyes with a loud yawn. "I need your help!"

_Meanwhile…_

A tall man stared at the orange-haired young man who lay on the ground in front of him. He was a lean-built and stoic middle-aged man with pale skin, high cheekbones, stubble and long ragged black hair with brown highlights. He wore a tattered white dress shirt with an upturned collar and cuffs, black trousers, low-heeled boots and a long black overcoat with a burgundy highlight that flared out into ragged ends. He wore brown-tinted, semi-transparent wraparound sunglasses.

He frowned as the young man stirred. "Are you awake, Ichigo?" he asked, his voice containing a slight hint of concern as the young man – Kurosaki Ichigo – slowly sat up with a grunt, rubbing his tired eyes. The man's eyes narrowed as he noted Ichigo's noticeably pale complexion.

Ichigo groaned quietly as the man knelt down and placed a hand behind the tired young man's back, supporting him as he attempted to remain upright. Ichigo closed his eyes, not bothering to look up at the man.

"… Zangetsu…" Ichigo grunted, his voice barely more than a whisper.

The man – Zangetsu – nodded, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses as Ichigo brought a hand up to his face, rubbing one of his eyes slightly. "Are you feeling OK?" the Zanpakutō Spirit inquired quietly.

"… Yeah…" the orange-haired Substitute Shinigami lied.

"… You're lying…" Zangetsu frowned.

Ichigo was silent for a few seconds before he let out a mirthless chuckle. "… Was it that obvious…?"

With a slight nod, Zangetsu looked around himself, taking note of the state of disrepair that their environment had fallen into. The buildings that were once a bright, clean white were now greying, filthy and dilapidated. The once-blue sky was grey and overcast with bright flashes of lighting and the occasional roll of thunder sounding high above their heads. A bitter-cold wind blew past them, forcing the Zanpakutō Spirit to pull his cloak around him tightly to fight off the cold.

Ichigo shivered slightly, but didn't seem to completely register how cold he felt. "… What happened…?" he inquired tiredly.

"Your body has been invaded by a foreign Reiatsu. Your Hollow-self and I are doing our best to fend it off. You need to be strong for us while we work…" He paused, waiting for Ichigo's response. When it didn't come, he gave him a prod in the right direction. "OK?"

Ichigo finally and slowly nodded, but his empty eyes and the fact that he didn't seem to register what had been said at all worried Zangetsu slightly. Pushing that thought to the back of his mind, he turned as a voice called over from a nearby building. Ichigo's Hollow form – a white version of himself with black sclera and piercing golden irises – had appeared, standing high above them on another building, a white replica of Zangetsu's Shikai form in his hands.

"Get ready!" he shouted, a maniacal smirk playing across his features as he did so. "He's coming!"

"Calm down!" Zangetsu called back as a Bankai version of himself – a black daitō, the crossguard of which consisted of four prongs that were bent to form the maji, the hilt bearing a black, broken chain. "This is no time to be frivolous!"

"Nonsense!" The white Ichigo's grin widened, his eyes glinting with bloodlust as he turned to stare out at the landscape in front of him, his eyes falling on a figure in the distance.

It didn't move… yet, it watched…

It said nothing… yet, it watched…

It had no eyes… yet it watched…

The tall man… watched…


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Explanations

_Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, the Slender Man or Slender._

_BLEACH_

Zangetsu's grip on his blade tightened as he stared at the man in the distance. Well… it could have been a man… except for the fact that it most definitely wasn't… While, the black suit that he wore may have been considered somewhat normal, he still couldn't be considered to be anything with a vaguely human appearance. Not with those tentacles, not with that emaciated, almost stretched appearance and certainly not with no face.

Gritting his teeth, Zangetsu dug his feet into the ground to gain traction and lunged forwards along with Hollow Ichigo, their blades poised to strike as they quickly closed the distance between themselves and the tall figure.

However, just as Zangetsu and the Hollow Ichigo reached the tall figure, they slashed their blades only to come into contact with… nothing… Zangetsu and Hollow Ichigo found themselves in pitch black darkness before re-emerging, having passed straight through their intended target.

Zangetsu and Hollow Ichigo both tumbled onto the ground before flipping onto their feet again, pointing their blades at the intruder who was now just mere feet away from them, its back turned to them. The creature didn't move. Zangetsu jabbed his blade in the direction of the man.

"Who are you?!" Zangetsu demanded. An eerie silence passed for quite a while before Zangetsu decided to push the intruder to reply. "Speak! Who are you?! Why is your Reiatsu inside this boy?!"

The creature-like man continued to stand silently in the same position, never moving an inch. With a grunt, Zangetsu took a step forward, levelling his blade at the area where the man's heart would be. Hollow Ichigo followed suit, his sword pointing at the man's head.

Suddenly, though, something began to seep into their minds, the sound of static ringing in their ears. Slowly, words began to form in their minds, almost as if the man in front of them was transmitting the words or thoughts telepathically, the words ringing incessantly, much like the static that still invaded their minds and muddled their thoughts.

"… _The boy… belongs… to me…"_

The words that formed in their minds accompanied a raspy voice that bled through the static. It wasn't even a voice, per say. It was more like the very static itself was communicating. Forming a voice in their minds in order to accompany the words.

It struck them then that what they had heard was not any form of speech, nor was it any distinguishable language. Indeed, the creature before them was not capable of such a feat. That much was apparent. What was being transmitted were mere thoughts and feelings that were translated in their minds, allowing them to make sense of it.

Almost as soon as the words had appeared in their minds, they had vanished in the same way, disappearing into the static which soon followed the words, quickly receding into sheer silence. Shaking his head to clear his mind of the last dregs of static, Zangetsu pressed forwards, his teeth gritted together in anger.

"You didn't answer my question!" he barked.

"Who are you?!" Hollow Ichigo cut in, the smile having been wiped off his face after the shock of having just passed through his opponent and experiencing the loud, mind-numbing static.

After a few seconds, the deafening static was already beginning to return and the words were beginning to bleed through into their minds again, disrupting their thoughts in the process as the static continued to invade the recesses of their minds.

"… I… am… the… Black… King…"

Suddenly, to the shock of both Zangetsu and Hollow Ichigo, the static slipped away and the form of the creature-like man before them began to flicker and fade from existence, his reiatsu slowly diminishing with each passing millisecond. Within a few seconds, the faceless man was gone.

Hollow Ichigo slowly lowered his blade, his guard having been lowered with the disappearance of the man's presence. He sighed and turned to Zangetsu who slowly and shakily followed the white Ichigo's example, his blade falling by his side. The Hollow's eyes narrowed, his expression becoming serious for once.

"… What was that…?" he asked quietly.

"It… felt like a Hollow…" Zangetsu frowned.

Hollow Ichigo nodded slowly. "But, what happened to it?"

"I'm not sure," Zangetsu responded, his tone one of honesty. "The Reiatsu is completely gone, though. It seems as though it's been extracted in some way."

"That's possible?" Hollow Ichigo inquired with a confused expression.

"I don't know. It's either that or the Reiatsu dissipated on its own. I don't think that's likely that it would just leave on its own, especially when it's been implanted as deeply into Ichigo's body as this Reiatsu was," Zangetsu explained, bringing his hand up to his chin in thought.

"That… thing… It wasn't like any Hollow I've ever seen… That wasn't a mask, was it?" Hollow Ichigo asked, looking down at the ground as he attempted to collect his thoughts.

"No… I don't think it was… That looked like his skin… It was definitely a Hollow, though, with or without a mask…" the Zanpakutō spirit mused, his attention being drawn away as Hollow Ichigo let out an odd noise beside him. It sounded like… a giggle…

Very soon, the giggle transcended into loud, maniacal laughter. "… One thing's for certain, though…" the Hollow chuckled, calming down slightly. "… The next time I see him… I'll kill him…"

_Outside Ichigo's mind…_

"There! That should do it!" Urahara exclaimed as he placed a syringe down on the table beside Ichigo's bed, the clear liquid that he had injected into the redhead quickly taking the desired effect on the boy.

Ryūken immediately stepped forwards as Urahara stepped backwards, giving the doctor room to do his job. The white-haired doctor immediately began to check the monitors, checking Ichigo's pulse and temperature as he stared at the numbers on the monitor, already feeling the Reiatsu in Ichigo's body slowly start to recede.

"… Incredible…" he breathed as Urahara stepped forwards with an odd, mechanical-looking syringe with a blunt tip. "… What was that…?"

Urahara spoke as he placed the 'syringe' against Ichigo's arm. "That was a Reiatsu suppressant," he explained as he placed his thumb on a button on the end of the 'syringe,' causing it to emit a quiet whirring sound as it began to do its job.

"A Reiatsu suppressant? Why would he need that?" Ryūken frowned.

Urahara hummed as a strange liquid-like substance began to fill the 'syringe.' He lifted it up to his face, studying the odd glowing purple substance that lapped against the sides of the glass as he moved it.

"It was just a theory, actually," Urahara finally admitted as he lowered the syringe.

"A theory?" Isshin asked, almost as if he was looking for verification, his eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion as he leaned forwards in his chair, looking into Urahara's eyes.

Urahara nodded, denying nothing. "I've researched Shinigami, Hollows and humans for quite a while and I noticed something due to that."

"Why? Is something different? Something that isn't related to Reiatsu?" Rukia inquired from the corner of the room.

Urahara nodded. "I always noticed something regarding their immune systems. They behave very differently."

"How differently?" Ryūken asked, his interest as both a Quincy and a doctor having been piqued.

"They merely behave differently when tackling various threats to the body. When it comes to things like viruses and other forms of infection, they have a common method of driving the infection back and killing it. Unfortunately, though, there's no common method for ridding a body of Reiatsu. I also discovered that immune systems are heavily dependent on Reiatsu to function." Urahara found himself being cut off by Ryūken.

"So, how was this causing his symptoms?" the doctor quizzed, folding his arms in an impatient manner.

Urahara grinned. "I was getting to that part," the Shinigami assured the white-haired man before getting back to his explanation. "Basically, Ichigo produces three forms of Reiatsu within his body. The first Reiatsu is the mutated human Reiatsu that is only found in Quincy. It's what enables the Quincy to perform their techniques when other humans with high levels of Reiryoku cannot. Although the Quincy Cross is also necessary for that, the Reiatsu of a Quincy is also needed. The second Reiatsu is his Shinigami Reiatsu which allows him to have a Zanpakutō and perform Kidō and Hohō. The third Reiatsu is Hollow Reiatsu which gives him his Hollow powers and allows him to perform Hollow techniques like Cero."

"So, how do these Reiatsu behave differently?" Ryūken frowned.

"Simple. Immune systems are necessary for eliminating any foreign 'invaders' in the body such as infections or… Reiatsu, for example. These three forms of Reiatsu all jumped at the chance to eliminate this foreign body which just so happened to be the Reiatsu which was so firmly embedded in his body. The Reiatsu controlled his immune system, telling it how to behave. With each part of his immune system fighting in a different manner, his immune system slowly began to perceive itself as an enemy and started to attack everything that was behaving differently. As it was less focused on the Reiatsu, that allowed the Reiatsu to embed itself deeply and, due to the weakened immune system, it was able to work much faster than it should have been, thus resulting in… this!" Urahara explained, gesturing wildly towards Ichigo.

"But, why couldn't you just remove it? Why supress his Reiatsu?" Rukia inquired, her expression becoming one of confusion and curiosity.

"I didn't remove it because I couldn't. I needed his immune system to be attacking the foreign Reiatsu. In order to do this, I supressed both his Quincy and Hollow Reiatsu and allowed his more efficient Shinigami Reiatsu to remain. What is left of his immune system has now begun to attack the Reiatsu, quickly causing it to dissipate." Urahara raised a hand and made it into a tight fist. "Prior to this, the foreign Reiatsu was embedded deeply into Ichigo. When his immune system began to fight back against the Reiatsu…" Urahara opened his hand. "The ties that the Reiatsu had to Ichigo's body quickly dissolved and I was allowed to take a sample once the Reiatsu came loose and became accessible." Lowering his hand, Urahara quickly added, "Ichigo's body will take care of the rest. There's no need to worry about that. His immune system is strengthening again. He'll be fine."

Isshin sighed in relief. "… He'll be fine… Thank goodness…" he whispered, bending over and burying his face in his hands as he felt himself quickly calming down.

"But, how could you be certain that his immune system was behaving like that?" Ryūken asked with a stony glare, his gaze fixed onto Urahara.

He watched as the grin that was plastered onto Urahara's face slowly dissipated. "I didn't," came his calm and collected answer.

"What would have happened if you were wrong?" the doctor queried, catching the attention of Isshin and Rukia. Both looked up as silence descended on the small hospital room.

Urahara slowly raised a hand up to the back of his head, rubbing it sheepishly. "I suppose…" He trailed off, attempting to form a sentence in his mind that consisted of words that wouldn't offend anyone in the room. Finally, he shrugged and threw all caution to the wind, deciding to be truthful rather than to beat around the bush. "I suppose that… he might have died!"

Isshin was on his feet in an instant. "You could have killed my son?!" he bellowed as Ryūken hurriedly made his way over to him, putting his hands on Isshin's shoulders in a somewhat passive attempt to restrain him.

"Of course, if I hadn't, he would have died, anyway," Urahara informed him. He quickly tore his attention away from Isshin and turned it to Rukia. "Now…" he sighed. "I believe that you have to take this to Research and Development…. Don't you…?" He held out the syringe that lay in his right hand as he walked over to the female Shinigami.

Rukia was silent for a few seconds. She finally reached up and took the syringe, briefly noting that it was softly radiating an unsettling heat that leached through the glass and into her hand. Closing her hand around the syringe, she turned her cold gaze on Urahara.

"Why did you do that?" she questioned, her tone filled with anger.

His gaze softened. "Ichigo would have wanted me to," he told her, his voice brimming with honesty. "If I hadn't done that, his body wouldn't have been able to fight back. Tell me. What kind of person is Ichigo? Would he have just wanted to fade away in a hospital bed or would he have wanted to take the chance to live?"

After a few seconds of thought, Rukia nodded slightly, the reality of the situation sinking in. "Yes… Ichigo would have wanted it…" she finally muttered. She turned her inquisitive gaze towards Urahara. "So, when should this wear off?" she asked.

"It could be quite a while," the exiled Shinigami admitted, bringing his hand up to his chin in thought. "Either way, although this will dramatically reduce his Reiatsu and power levels, it should keep him safe if the Hollow attacks again." He finally shook his head. "The most important thing now is that we identify this Hollow, though. You should go."

Rukia nodded and left the room without another word. Urahara, noting that he had nothing left to do, stuck his hands in his pockets and sauntered out of the room, his job done, leaving Isshin to slowly flop down into his seat again with a sigh.

"… At least Ichigo is safe…" Isshin muttered, rubbing his eyes he suddenly became aware of how tired he was.

Ryūken straightened up and cleared his throat. "I have other patients to attend to. If there are any complications, don't hesitate to call me."

Isshin nodded dumbly, removing his hands from his face. As he heard the door open and click shut, he allowed his eyes to fall on the redhead that was sleeping on the bed before him. With a slight smirk, he reached over and ruffled Ichigo's hair, noting that he was still feverish.

Isshin let out a chuckle. "… I've always wondered where you got that hair from…"

Ichigo's hair was a sore spot for him and Isshin wasn't sure if he had the gall to say anything about it. At least, not while Ichigo was conscious, anyway. Isshin's smile widened slightly and he opened his mouth to continue to speak, only stopping when a weak voice cut through the silence in the small hospital room.

"… Keep talking… and I'll… send you back… to Soul Society… in a box…"


End file.
